Electronic gaming machine (EGM) manufacturers strive to make EGMs that provide as much enjoyment, entertainment, and excitement as possible for players. Providing interesting and exciting primary or base games and secondary or bonus games in which a player has an opportunity to win potentially large awards is one way to enhance player enjoyment and excitement. Different EGMs configured to operate a slot or a spinning-reel type game may increase the player's enjoyment of the game by employing or offering different types of award evaluations, such as a scatter-pay award evaluation, a payline-based award evaluation, and/or a multiway award evaluation.
FIG. 1A illustrates a screen shot of one known EGM employing a scatter-pay award evaluation. This example EGM displays a plurality of reels 105a to 105e in association with a 4×5 grid of symbol display areas 110a to 110t such that each reel is configured to display symbols at four of the symbol display areas 110a to 110t. This screen shot shows the reels 105a to 105e after the EGM has spun and stopped the reels for a play of a slot game such that the reels display randomly determined symbols 120a to 120t at the symbol display areas.
The EGM performs the scatter-pay award evaluation for the displayed symbols by, for each designated symbol: (1) counting each displayed instance of that particular designated symbol to determine a multiplier for that particular designated symbol, and (2) multiplying a base award for that particular designated symbol by the determined multiplier to determine a total award for that particular designated symbol. In this example, the Seven symbol and the Double Bar symbol are designated symbols. Turning to the scatter-pay award evaluation for the Seven symbol, the EGM: (1) determined a 10× multiplier corresponding to the ten displayed instances of the Seven symbol, and (2) determined a total award of 200 credits for the Seven symbol by multiplying a base award of 20 credits for the Seven symbol by the 10× multiplier. Turning to the scatter-pay award evaluation for the Double Bar symbol, the EGM: (1) determined a 5× multiplier corresponding to the five displayed instances of the Double Bar symbol, and (2) determined a total award of 10 credits for the Double Bar symbol by multiplying a base award of 2 credits for the Double Bar symbol by the 5× multiplier. The scatter-pay award evaluation thus resulted in a total award of 210 credits.
FIG. 1B illustrates a screen shot of one known EGM employing a payline-based award evaluation. This example EGM is identical to that described above with respect to FIG. 1A with the addition of paylines 101a (associated with symbol display areas 110a to 110e), 101b (associated with symbol display areas 110f to 110j), 101c (associated with symbol display areas 110k to 110o), and 101d (associated with symbol display areas 110p to 110t). This screen shot shows the reels 105a to 105e after the EGM has spun and stopped the reels for a play of a slot game such that randomly determined symbols 120a to 120t are displayed at the symbol display areas 110a to 110t. 
The EGM performs the payline-based award evaluation for the displayed symbols by analyzing the displayed symbols and determining if any winning symbols or winning symbol combinations are displayed on or along any wagered-on paylines. That is, the EGM separately analyzes each wagered-on payline to determine if any winning symbols or symbol combinations are displayed on or along on that payline. The EGM determines and displays an award for each winning symbol and each winning symbol combination displayed along a wagered-on payline. In this example, the EGM determined whether a winning symbol or winning symbol combination was displayed along that particular payline. Here, the EGM determined that the winning symbol combination Seven/Seven/Seven/Seven/Seven, which is associated with an award of 20 credits, was displayed along the payline 101c and that the winning symbol combination Double Bar/Double Bar/Double Bar, which is associated with an award of 2 credits, was displayed along the payline 101d. The payline-based award evaluation thus resulted in a total award of 22 credits.
FIG. 1C illustrates a screen shot of one known EGM employing a multiway award evaluation. This example EGM is identical to that described above with respect to FIG. 1A. In this example embodiment, all of the symbol display areas 110a to 110t are active for this play of the slot game, and the EGM performed the multiway award evaluation for the Seven symbol and the Double Bar symbol, which the leftmost reel 105a displays at active symbol display areas.
The EGM performs the multiway award evaluation for the symbols displayed in wagered-on active symbol display areas. This particular EGM performs the multiway award evaluation from left-to-right. When performing the multiway award evaluation, the EGM: (1) selects a first symbol displayed at an active symbol display area by a first reel, which is the leftmost reel in this example; (2) determines a multiplier for the first symbol; (3) modifies a base award for the first symbol using the determined multiplier for the first symbol to determine a total award for the first symbol; and (4) provides the total award for the first symbol to the player. The EGM repeats this process for each remaining different symbol displayed at an active symbol display area by the first reel.
Here, the EGM determines the multiplier for a symbol by: (1) moving from left-to-right, determining how many adjacent reels display at least one instance of that symbol at an active symbol display area; and if at least two adjacent reels each display at least one instance of that symbol at an active symbol display area, (2) multiplying the quantities of instances of that symbol displayed at active symbol display areas by the adjacent reels with one another. For instance, if the first reel displays two instances of a first symbol at active symbol display areas, a second reel adjacent to the first reel displays one instance of the first symbol at an active symbol display area, and a third reel adjacent to the second reel displays three instances of the first symbol at active symbol display areas, the EGM determines a multiplier of 6× (i.e., 2×1×3) for the first symbol.
Turning to the multiway award evaluation for the Seven symbol, the EGM determined that, moving from left-to-right, five adjacent reels 105a, 105b, 105c, 105d, and 105e each display at least one instance of the Seven symbol at an active symbol display area. The EGM then determined a multiplier of 18× by multiplying (1) the three instances of the Seven symbol 120a, 120f, and 120k displayed by the reel 105a at the active symbol display areas 110a, 110f, and 110k by (2) the one instance of the Seven symbol 120l displayed by the reel 105b at the active symbol display area 110l by (3) the two instances of the Seven symbol 120h and 120m displayed by the reel 105c at the active symbol display areas 110h and 110m by (4) the one instance of the Seven symbol 120n displayed by the reel 105d at the active symbol display area 110n by (5) the three instances of the Seven symbol 120e, 120j, and 120o displayed by the reel 105e at the active symbol display areas 110e, 110j, and 110o. The EGM then multiplied a base award of 20 credits associated with the Seven symbol by the 18× multiplier to determine a total award of 360 credits associated with the Seven symbol.
Turning to the multiway award evaluation for the Double Bar symbol, the EGM determined that, moving from left-to-right, three adjacent reels 105a, 105b, and 105c each display at least one instance of the Double Bar symbol at an active symbol display area. The reel 105d does not display any instances of the Double Bar symbol at any active symbol display areas, so the EGM did not consider the instance of the Double Bar symbol 120t displayed at the active symbol display area 110t associated with the reel 105e in this multiway award evaluation. The EGM then determined a multiplier of 2× by multiplying (1) the one instance of the Double Bar symbol 120p displayed by the reel 105a at the active symbol display area 110p by (2) the one instance of the Double Bar symbol 120q displayed by the reel 105b at the active symbol display area 110q by (3) the two instances of the Double Bar symbol 120c and 120r displayed by the reel 105c at the active symbol display areas 110c and 110r. The EGM then multiplied a base award of 2 credits associated with the Double Bar symbol by the 2× multiplier to determine a total award of 4 credits associated with the Double Bar symbol. The multiway award evaluation thus resulted in a total award of 364 credits.
There is a continuing need to provide new and exciting manners of evaluating symbols to determine awards to increase player enjoyment, entertainment, and excitement.